Part 1: Description of Bilingual Education in Texas
TEKS:
TEKS stands for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Before TEKS, it was named Essential Elements (EEs). The idea for EEs was to give every student the opportunity to learn. In 1998, the State Board of Education adopted TEKS for every student should be able to do in every grade level subjects. TEKS is divided by thirteen chapters, then the chapters are divided into subchapters. The thirteen chapters are English Language Arts and Reading, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Language Other Than English, Health Education, Physical Education, Fine Arts, Economics with Emphasis on the Free Enterprise System and its Benefits, Technology Applications, Career Development, Spanish Language
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For example, the first chapter is 110. English Language Arts and Reading, the subchapter a. elementary has six parts. The six parts are; 110.10 Implementation of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, Elementary, 110.11 English Language Arts and Reading, Kindergarten, 110.12-110.16 English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 1 through 5 beginning. Then is subchapter b. middle school and it also has six parts, the first part is 110.17 Implementation of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, Middle, 110.18-110.20 English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 6-8, 110.25 English Language Arts and Reading, and the last part is 110.26 English Language Arts and Reading, Speech. The following subchapter is subchapter c. high school and it has twenty-five parts. 110.30 Implementation of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading, high School, the second is 110.31-110.34 English Language Arts and Reading, English I-IV, the six part is 110.46 Independent Study in English, and the seventh part is 110.47 Reading I, II, III, the eighth part is 110.48 College Readiness and Study Skills the ninth part is 110.49 Visual Media Analysis and Production, the tenth part is 110.50 Contemporary Media, the eleventh part is 110.51 Literary Genres, the twelve parts is 110.52 Creative Writing, thirteen part is 110.53 Research and Technical Writing, fourteen …show more content…
STAAR also known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness replaced the TAKS in 2012. STAAR test third graders to eight grader in reading and mathematics, writing starts fourth graders and ends in seventh grade, fifth grader to eighth graders are tested on science and lastly only eight graders test on social studies. There are also Spanish STAAR exam, reading and mathematics exam is third grade to fifth grade. Writing exams starts in fourth grade and science exams starts in fifth grade. STAAR L is a linguistic accommodated English version of STAAR exam and it’s an online test. TELPAS also known as Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System is assessed to limited English proficient (LEP) students. TELPAS is focused on four domains; listening, reading, writing, and speaking from kindergarten through twelve grade. There are two different TELPAS assessments; student interactions and the four domain with classroom observations from kindergarten to first grade. Multiple choice of reading test, writing is based on student’s collections, and listening and speaking are classroom observations with student interactions second to twelve grade. There are certain ELLs who can take TAKS exams in Spanish, third graders through fifth graders with or without linguistic
"Maximum Class Size Exceptions." Texas Education Agency. N.p., 17 Dec. 2013. Web. 27 May 2014. .
The Running Records assignment from Developing Lang and Literacy class at Leeward Community College provides evidence that I have completed the HTSB Standard 6: Assessment. For this assignment, I volunteered for ten hours in an elementary school and performed the running records assessment on a student. The point of the running records assessment is to determine students’ level of proficiency with literacy materials. This is done by checking if students self-corrected themselves, and if they can recognize and gather meaning from the text, not just decode it.
Standardized testing in Texas public schools has parents and teachers furious. It is an argument of Texas Legislature versus those who oppose. Student will take about 17 of these tests before entering high school (Smith A17A). Texas schools are currently conflicted with taking the STAAR tests as it brings upon many arguments. The disadvantages seem to rule out the few advantages test makers tried to pass. Rather than helping students see where they stand, it makes students feel as if they do not stand a chance.
Bilingual teaching in American schools is it good, bad, or both? Who is right in this national debate? Both sides make some impressive arguments for their side of the issue. Even the government has mixed issues when it comes to bilingual teaching. However, the government has shown their views in their budgets and their law making. Another question comes up with the bilingual teaching is should America make English its official language? Some say there is no need for it, and yet 22 states as of 1996 declared English their official language. Looking into some of these issues may bring some insight as to what the problem may be.
America’s educational system is home to an increasing number of English language learners. Some research indicates that by the year 2030, over 40% of elementary and secondary students served by schools in the United States will come from homes where a language other than English is spoken (Thomas & Collier, 2001). In an effort to accommodate these students, the United States has adopted policies at both the federal and state levels. Generally, the direction taken to meet the needs of English language learners has depended on the climate of the nation. During times of peace and prosperity, policies reflect the nation’s tolerance of other languages and cultures. However, during times of war or conflict, policies have reflected intolerance or fear of anything deemed “un-American.”
Imagine walking into school on day one of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, or better known as TCAP. You are rushed to your proctor’s room. This is just day one of the six long grueling test days. The school board is counting on you to score high enough to reflect positively on your school district. Each session will last up to sixty minutes with just enough time for most students to finish. There are usually three sessions per day. For most students, this process is one which is dreaded with each coming year. TCAP results are scored by advanced, proficient, partially proficient, or unsatisfactory (Time4Learning). The TCAP tests students from 3rd through 10th grade. This test happens the same time each year. There are four different tests that constitute the TCAP: reading, writing, math, and for the 5th, 8th, and 10th grades science.
that is a mystery to you. When I came here at age 9, I felt the same,
While the population of language minority children in the nation makes up a substantial part of the student population, and continues to grow, their educational civil rights have come under increasing scrutiny and attack over the past decade. All students have the right to be provided access to content area knowledge. Bilingual education, or teaching through the native language, has been an important technique for providing that right to English language learners. However, the use of this educational technique has been increasingly criticized and eroded over the past ten years. To look at this broad issue, I will examine the history of civil rights for language minority children, the assumptions behind the attack on bilingual education, and suggest responses to safeguard the rights of language minority students.
Thomas, Wayne P., and Virginia P. Collier. "Accelerated Schooling for English Language Learners." Educational Leadership (Apr.99): 46-49.
Bilingual education is defined as involving the use of two languages as media of intrusions (May, 2008). It is an educational process that aims to promote and “maintain longer-term student bilingualism and bi-literacy, adding another language to, but not subtracting from the student’s existing language repertoire” (May, 2008, p. 19-20). Simply, bilingual education is the use of more than one language to deliver curriculum content.
Norm-referenced standardized tests (NRST) used for different administration over the decades. The NRST classifies individuals. It highlights achievements differences between and among students to develop reliable scores. In school systems NRSTs helps identified students for remedial programs. The U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1992), establish a standardized test as one that uses (NAGC - ED Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Testing. (n.d.) (Retrieved from http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=314). Similar procedures for application and scoring in order to ensure that results from different people are comparable (Bond, 2010). NRST compares the performance of students with other students from large groups. Using a standardized test like the NRST will grade students in order from high to low achievers. A valid population must be from the widest range of the student population. Accordingly, the assessment must also report the status of student achievement “broken down by gender, ethnicity, disability, economic disadvantage, English proficiency, and...
396). Even with the effort from legislators, Texas “[remains] low compared with those in other states.” Changes in education sometimes take much longer to display noticeable improvements, or lack thereof. A decision from lack of funding might not be apparent until 10 years from now, when students are integrated into the work force. Education has the potential to solve many of our nation’s problems, but reducing funding opposes what we as a nation are trying to accomplish. In the short term, the state saves money, but in the future, the state could possibly expect to pay more when we effectively fail to properly teach students. Education should be seen as an investment for the
The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or S.T.A.A.R. is a test required by the state that students have to take in grades 3 through 8 and are required to take 5 in high school. This test is unfair to the school districts, teachers, and students.
In the content area in Language Arts, students will develop the reading skills necessary for word recognition, comprehension, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of print and non-print text activating prior knowledge, processing and acquiring new vocabulary, organizing information, understanding visual representations, self-monitoring, and reflecting. This can be accomplished by implementing pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading strategies into the lesson plan. Fifth grade students will read and write a variety of texts with greater scope and depth. In addition, they will analyze and evaluate information and ideas by revisiting and refining concepts about the language arts benchmark and will become more refined and independent learners.
According to the Student Success Initiative (SSI) 2012-2013 manual, the 81st Texas Legislature in 2009 made changes to their 1999 policy, requiring 5th and 8th grade students to “demonstrate proficiency” on the reading and mathematics section of their tests by their third administration. Additionally, the Grade Placement Committee (GPC) can approve advancement based on grades, standardized test scores and teacher recommendation. With this in mind, the 2013-14 sixth grade students at an elementary school in Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) recently completed their fifth grade SSI mandated assessments. Approximately 55% of the 120 students successfully passed the math section of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) with three attempts. Accelerated instruction, as required per SSI policy, followed each of the three attempts, to include tutorials after school, on Saturdays and during the summer. Through careful analysis of cummulative Student Expectations (SE) with less than 70% unmet, it was determined that a majority of the standards will need reteaching and/or intervention. How will the sixth grade math teachers meet the sixth grade SEs and accommodate for the previously unmet standards?